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Pollard: Brady "knew what he was doing" when kicking Reed

Late in the first half of Sunday's AFC championship, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady scrambled for three yards and ended it with a slide. But this wasn't an ordinary slide.

Brady lifted his right leg and kicked Ravens safety Ed Reed. There was no penalty called, but those in attendance at Gillette Stadium noticed.

Fellow Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard took exception to Brady's conduct and believes the Pats' veteran should be penalized.

"When you slide, everything is on the ground. He knew what he was doing," Pollard said Monday. "I'm the type of player where it has to go both ways. It really does. It has to go both ways. Hopefully the NFL will do something about it. If they don't, that's fine. If they do, then that's fine. But I think for me as a player, we all know the emotions and everything that go on on the field - we're going to say things, we're going to do things. But when it's all said and done, if you want to keep the game clean, if you want to keep this going in the right direction, everybody needs to be penalized for their actions."

All season, Pollard has been vocal about the NFL fining defensive players for hard hits and high blows. His latest comments show that he'd like to see the league hold offensive players to the same standard for unsportsmanlike or unsafe play.

Also in Sunday's game, Pollard was flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit and was not penalized for a crushing tackle that knocked Stevan Ridley out of the game, forcing a fumble in the process and swinging momentum entirely in the Ravens' favor.

Pollard addressed the latter hit on Monday afternoon.

"This is a violent sport. We run fast, we hit hard, guys are big and they're getting bigger and quicker year in and year out," Pollard said. "I love to play this game, I love to tackle. That's what I do. When you've got two guys running full speed at each other and you've got helmets and shoulder pads on, somebody is going to go down. But it's not something that I'm proud of. I hope he's all right. We'll see."